The present invention relates to a vibrating conveyor. More particularly, it relates to a vibrating conveyor which has a working mass which is driven in vibration and has a conveying surface for supporting a workpiece to be conveyed, a drive system which drives the working mass in vibrations, a counter mass connected with the working mass via springs or other links, an accumulating element for vibration energy, and a device provided between the counter mass and a mounting base for vibration isolation and/or damping.
Vibrating conveyors of the above general type are known in the art. The counter mass which conventionally is formed by a masive housing body (base body) of the conveyor is considerably greater than the working mass. The workpiece which lies on the conveying channel of the working mass is taken along the prestroke movement in the conveying direction; however, the working mass does not perform the return stroke. The working mass and the counter mass vibrate necessarily in the opposite direction, so that in the event of a great counter mass on the vibrating conveyor disturbing vibrations transfer to the surrounding are unavoidable. Such vibrations are especially undesirable when the mounting base are driven by the disturbing vibrations also into vibrations or possibly the disturbing vibrations are amplified. This can be the case when the mounting base serves as a housing of a further device which belongs to a manufacturing installation. Such disturbing vibrations can lead to considerable noise generation and cause a main problem for the use of the vibrating conveyors.
In the known vibrating conveyors of this type a rubber buffer is arranged between the counter mass and the mounting base so as to serve as a damping device. The rubber buffer is formed for example as a vibration mount. These rubber buffers have, however, only a very limited damping capacity, since it depends on the shore hardness of the material. Because the required exact position retention of such swinging conveyor or because of the required force takeup in vertical direction, this hardness is limited.